Number: WG30016
Welsh Government
Consultation Document
Welsh Language Standards (Water and Sewerage
Undertakers) Regulations
Date of issue: 25 November 2016
Action required: Responses by 17 February 2017
Mae’r ddogfen yma hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg.
This document is also available in Welsh.
© Crown copyright 2016
Welsh Language Standards (Water and
Sewerage Undertakers) Regulations
Overview
This consultation seeks views on the draft Regulations to specify
Welsh Language Standards for water and sewerage undertakers
for the whole or any part of Wales. These Regulations will enable
the Welsh Language Commissioner to place duties on them in
relation to the Welsh language.
We are holding this consultation to ensure that everyone with an
interest has ample opportunity to have their say on this set of
draft standards. The companies subject to this set of standards
were included in the Welsh Language Commissioner’s third
standards investigation which was held between 26 May and 18
August 2015. The Commissioner’s findings, which were
presented to Welsh Ministers in the form of a Standards Report,
were based on the comments the Commissioner received during
that investigation. Having given due regard to the Commissioner’s
report we now want members of the public, the bodies that will be
subject to the standards, and anyone else with an interest to have
their say on the Regulations which will specify the standards in
order to inform their development.
How to
respond
Responses to this consultation should be
e-mailed/posted to the address below to arrive by 17 February
2017 at the latest.
Further
Large print, Braille and alternative language versions of this
information document are available on request.
and related
documents Welsh Language Commissioner’s Standards Report – Section 64
Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011: Schedule 8: Qualifying
persons who provide the public with post offices and water and
sewerage undertakers (Welsh Language Commissioner, 2015)
Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011
The consultation documents can be accessed from the Welsh
Government’s website at gov.wales/consultations
Contact
details
For further information:
Welsh Language Division
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
e-mail:[email protected]
Tel: 0300 0604400
Data
protection
How the views and information you give us will be used
Any response you send us will be seen in full by Welsh
Government staff dealing with the issues which this consultation
is about. It may also be seen by other Welsh Government staff to
help them plan future consultations.
The Welsh Government intends to publish a summary of the
responses to this document. We may also publish responses in
full. Normally, the name and address (or part of the address) of
the person or organisation who sent the response are published
with the response. This helps to show that the consultation was
carried out properly. If you do not want your name or address
published, please tell us this in writing when you send your
response. We will then blank them out.
Names or addresses we blank out might still get published later,
though we do not think this would happen very often. The
Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 allow the public to ask to see
information held by many public bodies, including the Welsh
Government. This includes information which has not been
published. However, the law also allows us to withhold
information in some circumstances. If anyone asks to see
information we have withheld, we will have to decide whether to
release it or not. If someone has asked for their name and
address not to be published, that is an important fact we would
take into account. However, there might sometimes be important
reasons why we would have to reveal someone’s name and
address, even though they have asked for them not to be
published. We would get in touch with the person and ask their
views before we finally decided to reveal the information.
Contents
Ministerial foreword
2
1. Introduction
3
1.1 Respective roles of the Welsh Government and the Commissioner
3
1.2 Who is subject to the draft Regulations?
4
1.3 Building on Welsh Language Schemes
4
1.4 The process – how will the standards work?
4
1.5 Compliance notices
5
1.6 What outcomes do we anticipate?
6
1.7 From whom do we want to hear about the Regulations and what do we want to know? 6
2. Standards for water and sewerage undertakers
7
2.1 Service delivery standards
7
2.2 Correspondence
8
2.3 Telephone calls
8
2.4 Publications
8
2.5 Websites
9
2.6 Online chat facilities
9
2.7 Other matters
9
2.8 Exemptions
10
3. Regulatory Impact Assessment
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4. How to respond
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Ministerial foreword
The Welsh Government is committed to strengthening the provision of Welsh
language services to the people of Wales. The next step in this process is bringing the
companies that provide the public with water and sewerage services under the Welsh
language standards system.
My intention is that these standards reflect the relationship between water and
sewerage undertakers and their customers, and focus on ensuring that the services
that customers use the most are available to them in Welsh. We want to see the
standards contributing towards the Government’s policy objective of increasing the use
of Welsh, and therefore we want customers to be able to use the language when
dealing with these companies. We are eager to see these companies focusing their
efforts on situations where they deal directly with customers - continuing to invest in
providing good Welsh language services to their customers, especially in the contexts
of new technologies such as apps and online services.
I am aware that the Welsh Language Commissioner has recently completed a
standards investigation into gas and electricity providers, and we await the
Commissioner’s report setting out her conclusions from that investigation. From the
customer’s point of view, the way their gas and electricity provider provides information
to them is similar to what they receive from their water provider. I would therefore
expect these draft Regulations to be of interest to the wider utilities sector and their
customers, although we will consider each sector separately in light of the
Commissioner’s recommendations.
I am very eager to hear from both members of the public and the companies
themselves, so that we can judge if these draft Regulations will improve the services
customers receive from these companies in Welsh.
Alun Davies AM
Minister for Lifelong Learning and
Welsh Language
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1. Introduction
The Welsh Government is preparing Welsh Language Standards (‘standards’) under
the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 (“the Measure”) which give Welsh
speakers improved and enforceable rights to use the Welsh language.
Regulations that specify standards for bodies are being introduced gradually and are
prepared with the aim of being reasonable, proportionate and relevant to the bodies
named in each set of Regulations. We have already made four sets of Regulations
which have specified standards for 80 bodies. These include Local Authorities,
National Parks, Welsh Ministers, the emergency services, and bodies such as the
BBC, National Museum for Wales and Natural Resources Wales. The Welsh
Language Commissioner (‘the Commissioner’) has since required these bodies to
comply with standards.
The standards specified in the draft Regulations subject to this consultation are
specifically drafted for water and sewerage undertakers that provide water and/or
sewerage services for the whole or any part of Wales (“companies”).
Between 26 May and 18 August 2015, the Commissioner held a Standards
Investigation with the following companies:
 Dŵr Cymru / Welsh Water
 Severn Trent Water
 Dee Valley Water
 SSE Water
These companies are members of one or more of the following groups of persons
which are listed in Schedule 8 to the Measure:
 Qualifying persons who are water undertakers for the whole or any part of
Wales.
 Qualifying persons who are sewerage undertakers for the whole or any part of
Wales.
The draft Regulations make the standards specifically applicable to these groups of
persons. As a result, the Commissioner could require any water or sewerage
undertaker who is appointed for the whole or any part of Wales to comply with the
standards specified in the draft Regulations.
The Welsh Ministers have decided to hold a consultation on the draft Regulations. This
consultation is an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the draft Regulations to
have their say about them.
1.1 Respective roles of the Welsh Government and the
Commissioner
The standards have to be made by specifying them in Regulations. Guided by the
Commissioner’s standards investigation report and the Government’s own stakeholder
engagement, the role of the Welsh Government is to draft the standards and the
Regulations which contain them. Once the Regulations are approved by the National
Assembly for Wales, it will be for the Commissioner to choose which standards to
impose on individual companies.
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1.2 Who is subject to the draft Regulations?
Any qualifying person who is a water and/or sewerage undertaker for the whole or any
part of Wales. “Qualifying person” in this context means a person that is not listed in
Schedule 6 to the Measure.
1.3 Building on Welsh Language Schemes
The four companies named above (that were subject to the Commissioner’s standards
investigation) currently deliver Welsh language services based on their Welsh
Language Schemes prepared under the Welsh Language Act 1993.
The Schemes have been successful in raising the profile of services that should be
available to the public in Welsh, as well as ensuring that many of those services are
now provided in Welsh.
There is a stronger enforcement system attached to the standards, and bodies
required to comply with the draft standards will be under a duty to provide certain
Welsh language services. We are confident that the draft standards provide a solid
foundation, which will enable the Commissioner to impose reasonable and
proportionate standards that will offer effective Welsh language services for Welsh
speakers.
The companies to which these standards relate fall within Schedule 8 to the Measure.
This means that only service delivery standards and record keeping standards can be
made specifically applicable to them. The effect of this is that some commitments from
their current Welsh Language Schemes will be lost. For example, Dwr Cymru’s
commitment to assess the linguistic consequences of new policies and initiatives, and
all four companies’ commitments to maintain a list of employees able to speak Welsh,
to identify jobs where Welsh language skills are required and to encourage and
support staff to learn Welsh or improve their Welsh.
The Welsh Government believe that the benefits of having clear enforceable duties
with respect to some services and activities outweigh the disadvantages of losing
Welsh Language Scheme commitments which were not subject to such a strong
enforcement system.
1.4 The process – how will the standards work?
Each set of Regulations specifying Standards are tailored to reflect the way that the
sector they relate to delivers services and undertakes activities. These draft
Regulations include standards and specific conditions to reflect the way services are
delivered by the companies that provide water and sewerage services.
Before a body has to comply with a standard a number of conditions have to be met.
The relevant conditions are:
(i)
The body falls within the a category in Schedules 7 and 8 to the Measure;
(ii)
The standard has been made specifically applicable to the body. This
means that the Welsh Ministers have, in regulations, authorised the
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Commissioner to give a compliance notice to the body requiring it to comply
with the standard;
(iii)
The Commissioner has given a compliance notice to the body which
requires it to comply with the standard, and that compliance notice is in
force.
The draft Regulations set out the standards that we propose to make specifically
applicable to the companies who fall into one of the groups listed in Schedule 4 to the
draft Regulations.
The following categories of standards can be imposed on the water and sewerage
companies:
Service delivery standards. These relate to the delivery of services to another
person or when the company is dealing with a person in connection with delivering
services. They are intended to promote or facilitate the use of the Welsh language, or
to ensure that it is treated no less favourably than English. Because the water and
sewerage companies fall within Schedule 8 to the Measure, a service delivery
standard can only apply to the extent that it relates to the services the company
provides to the public in the exercise of its functions as a water and/or sewerage
undertaker.
Record keeping standards. These standards require the company to keep records
about some of the other standards, and about any complaints received by the
company. These records will assist the Commissioner in regulating the company’s
compliance with standards.
Supplementary standards. The draft Regulations also contain supplementary
standards. These standards deal with various matters including the production of an
annual report, monitoring arrangements and the provision of information to the
Commissioner.
1.5 Compliance notices
The draft Regulations set out the range of standards which could be imposed on a
company. There is no requirement on the Commissioner to require every company to
comply with every standard.
The Commissioner has flexibility in choosing which standards, and the extent to which,
a company has to comply as well as setting the date by which the company is required
to comply with a standard. The Commissioner sets out that information in a
compliance notice which is given to the company.
The Commissioner will therefore have several options when it comes to which
standards to impose on a company. A company may have to comply with a standard
only in some circumstances and not in others or in some areas and not in others –
depending on what is appropriate for them. This approach provides for the gradual
improvement of their provision in future.
Some standards are dependent on each other. The regulations therefore contain a
table to accompany the service delivery standards, detailing which other standards will
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also need to be imposed when a particular standard is included in a compliance
notice.
Means of appeal
A company will be able to challenge the requirement upon it to comply with a particular
standard on the grounds of whether it is reasonable and proportionate to require it to
do so.
In the first place, a company will be able to present a challenge to the Commissioner,
asking the Commissioner to determine whether the requirement upon it to comply with
a particular standard in the compliance notice is reasonable and proportionate. If they
are unable to resolve the dispute, there is a route of appeal available to the Welsh
Language Tribunal, and thereafter to the High Court (on a question of law).
Sanctions
The Commissioner will have the responsibility for enforcing compliance with
standards. In cases where the Commissioner determines that a company has failed to
comply with a standard, the Commissioner may take enforcement action.
1.6 What outcomes do we anticipate?
The standards have been drafted with the aim of:
 improving the Welsh language services Welsh speakers can expect to receive
from the companies that provide them with water and sewerage services
 increasing the use people make of Welsh language services
 making it clear to the companies what they need to do in terms of the Welsh
language.
1.7 From whom do we want to hear about the Regulations and what
do we want to know?
We are eager to hear from anyone with an interest in the draft standards, and in the
use of Welsh by water and sewerage undertakers. This consultation will be open until
17 February 2017 to ensure that members of the public, the companies that will be
subject to these standards, and other interested stakeholders have ample opportunity
to have their say on the Regulations. Please feel free to make any comments you wish
on any aspect of the draft Regulations. This is the opportunity for you to comment on
the standards from which the Commissioner can choose to impose on the companies
set out in Schedule 4. The Commissioner cannot vary the standards later, only choose
whether to require the company to comply, or in which circumstances or areas the
company has to comply.
The accompanying questionnaire asks for your views on specific aspects of the draft
Regulations.
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2. Standards for water and sewerage undertakers
2.1 Service delivery standards
Whilst these standards have been tailored specifically to address the relationship
between water and sewerage companies and their customers, they have been based
on previous sets of Regulations that have specified standards for other bodies. This
consultation seeks your views on the appropriateness of the draft Regulations in their
entirety. Specific questions are asked about some of the standards which we propose
to specify for water and sewerage companies, but we would like your views on all of
the proposed standards.
This document does not discuss each individual standard, but sections 2.2-2.8 below
highlight some matters which would be of particular interest to these companies and
their customers. Many of these services or activities are already provided in Welsh as
result of the companies’ Welsh Language Schemes.
The draft service delivery standards set out in Schedule 1 attempt to capture the
activities water and sewerage companies undertake when providing services to their
customers. The activities have been largely driven by Schedule 9 to the Measure
which lists activities in relation to which service delivery standards must be specified.
The draft Regulations includes standards which relate to the following activities:

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

Correspondence
Telephone calls
Meetings not open to the general
public
Meetings that are open to the public
Public events
Publicity and advertising
Displaying material

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Self service machines
Social media
Signs

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Producing documents
Forms
Websites and on-line services
(including apps and online chat
facilities)


Receiving visitors
Notices
Awarding grants
Raising awareness about Welsh
language services
Corporate identity
Offering courses
Although listed as an activity in Schedule 9 of the Measure, we have not prepared
standards relating to awarding contracts. We consider that making standards relating
to that activity specifically applicable to the companies would be unreasonable.
Contracts issued by companies are mostly large scale construction or engineering
contracts. Issuing these in Welsh would result in significant translation costs for the
companies. Our scoping of the industry has indicated that there isn’t currently a
demand to receive these types of documents in Welsh. We therefore believe that it
would be unreasonable to require the companies to comply with standards relating to
this activity.
In addition to this, we also regard that awarding contracts is not a customer facing
activity. We do not believe that imposing standards relating to awarding contracts on
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companies would contribute to increasing the customers’ use of Welsh, which is the
key policy aim of these standards.
2.2 Correspondence
Our intention is that these standards reflect the relationship between water and
sewerage companies and their customers, and that the most common types of
interactions between them are available to them in Welsh.
Many of the draft standards relating to correspondence are limited to “system
generated correspondence”. This has been defined as bills, meter reading requests,
new account correspondence and account closure correspondence. We regard these
as the correspondence customers receive most often from their water and sewerage
companies. Circular letters sent to several members of the public would still need to be
produced in Welsh if a company is required to comply with standard 3.
Standard 1, if a company is required to comply with it, would require the company to
respond to Welsh language correspondence in Welsh, provided the correspondence
related to the services the company provides to the public as a water or sewerage
undertaker.
2.3 Telephone calls
When contacting these companies by telephone, customers mostly use helplines
which are widely advertised on publications, bills, and the companies’ websites. These
can be categorised as helplines that either deal with customers’ account queries, or
helplines that help to deal with operational issues such as problems with the water
supply. Apart from exceptional circumstances, we would not expect a customer to
contact their water company by phone using another number (for example, by phoning
an individual member of staff directly).
For this reason, we believe that is it best to focus on ensuring that calls to these
customer helplines are dealt with in Welsh. We have therefore focused the draft
standards on telephone calls made to these helplines. We are keen to hear from
respondents whether they think that this is the best approach.
2.4 Publications
These draft Regulations do not specify which categories of documents should be
produced in Welsh. We want these standards to ensure that customers can read the
publications they wish to read in Welsh. However, we are aware that water and
sewerage companies are under statutory duties to produce a number of technical
documents, some of which are substantial in their length. Although published on their
websites, some of these documents are aimed at industry regulators and members of
the public are not expected to want to read them. We therefore want to find a way of
ensuring that the right documents are produced in Welsh and that valuable resources
are not spent on producing documents in Welsh that will not be used by customers.
We have considered the best way to address this, and have decided to seek opinions
on the proposed approach in standard 28. This standard requires a company to
publish a document in Welsh where the subject matter and/or the anticipated audience
suggests that it should be published in Welsh. We are confident that the companies
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are experienced enough in delivering Welsh language services to be able to make this
judgement in an objective and reasonable manner.
2.5 Websites
We have developed a range of standards relating to websites (standards 34-39) to
give the Commissioner choice when imposing standards on these companies.
Standards 34 to 38 would impose duties relating to the companies’ websites in their
entirety. The duties vary from ensuring that every page on a website is available in
Welsh, every new page in available in Welsh, to having a Welsh language homepage
and/or interface. However, we recognise that for some of these companies, their
customer base in Wales is a small proportion of their overall customer base, and that
this may warrant a different approach. Standard 39, if imposed, will require a company
to provide specified Welsh language information on their website about their work in
Wales and their Welsh language services.
We want to hear from respondents whether you believe that this range of standards is
a reasonable approach from the perspective of the company and the customer, and
whether it gives the Commissioner an adequate choice of standards to impose.
2.6 Online chat facilities
Like many other companies, some water and sewerage companies promote their
online chat facilities as a way for customers to contact them. This means of
communication is often advertised on a company’s website and customers can use
this instead of traditional methods such as sending a letter or calling by telephone. It
offers an immediate and interactive way for customers to communicate with the
company.
We have responded to this by preparing draft standards (standards 41 & 41A) that
specifically relate to this kind of facility. These standards are independent to the other
standards relating to websites and apps. We would like to hear from companies and
customers alike to see whether these standards are reasonable and practical, and
whether they reflect the expectations customers have when using online chat facilities
as a means of communication.
2.7 Other matters


The standards relating to meetings allow the companies to decide whether to
provide simultaneous or consecutive translation when a customer wishes to use
Welsh at a meeting. This takes into account that these companies may meet with
customers in a variety of environments, and arranging simultaneous translation is
not always a practical solution.
Due to the fact that some of the companies have offices in England, we have
limited the standards relating to receiving visitors to apply only to reception areas in
Wales.
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2.8 Exemptions
The draft Regulations set out some circumstances when the standards imposed on the
companies would not apply.
These include:
 when responding to an emergency that has occurred, is occurring or about to
occur
 when they are distributing or publishing material that they have not produced
 when they are providing services or undertaking activities on behalf of another
person.
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3. Regulatory Impact Assessment
The bodies subject to these draft Regulations were asked to take part in a Welsh
Government Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) as part of the Welsh Language
Commissioner’s third standards investigation. The RIA questionnaire was distributed
with the Commissioner’s Standards Investigation documentation, and bodies were
asked to submit their RIA responses directly to the Welsh Government.
The RIA responses were based on the No1.Regulations prepared for the Welsh
Ministers, local authorities and national park authorities which the Commissioner used
as the basis for the Investigation.
There are significant differences between the draft Regulations subject to this
Consultation and those used during the Commissioner’s Investigation. We are
therefore asking the companies to complete another RIA based on the draft
Regulations now being consulted upon. The purpose of the RIA is to help the Welsh
Ministers consider the impact of proposed regulation on the interests of individuals,
groups, bodies etc. to weigh the costs and benefits of all options available to them
before implementing a policy; and a means of presenting for scrutiny the relevant
evidence on the positive and negative effects of such interventions.
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4. How to respond
Specific questions are listed in the response form below; and you are invited to provide
answers to these questions, or to comment in more general terms. This may be
submitted electronically or in hard copy, using the contact details on page 2 of this
document by Friday 17 February 2017.
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